


Adapting

by jacquelee



Series: Star Trek Voyager Without White Guys [6]
Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Community: allthingsfandom, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 18:21:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6250462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacquelee/pseuds/jacquelee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Seven had brought the children who were separated from the Borg on board she visits sickbay and the youngest of their new charges. There, Chioma and Ajita remember Seven's first few days on Voyager and how hard it was for her to adapt, but also how monumental those first few steps to individuality were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adapting

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a challenge at [allthingsfandom](http://allthingsfandom.livejournal.com) for the bingo prompt In the Beginning.

After Seven had told the children a little bit about their families they had gone into their alcoves to regenerate. She herself went to go back to the astrometrics lab but at the door looked back into the cargo bay with a smile. 

Seeing the children in the alcoves was an unfamiliar sight but not a bad one. While she was sad she had been unable to save the entire group, the ones who were saved were now her responsibility. She would try doing right by them. Helping them. 

As she herself had been helped when she first arrived on board Voyager. Which reminded her to check in on the other child that was still in sickbay, so she decided to got to the astrometrics lab a little later and instead head there first. 

"Hey Seven, you've come to see our little sweetie? She's out of the woods and we think we can take her home soon." 

Seven smiled a little as Lieutenant Jones brought the tiny little girl up to her.

"I brought you the pre assimilation information we were able to retrieve on her. Her name is Alessari." 

"Alessa, hm? Or Al? Aless?" 

Doctor Mokeme came to stand next to her partner and look at their newly adopted daughter. They both smiled down on her with so much love that Seven was sure she had made the right decision when deciding that these two were to care for this child, while she herself took on responsibility for the older ones. 

"We'll see what she wants to be called later. Right now, we can go with either of those forms. I'm in favor of Al or Aless." 

"Yeah, me too. How about you little Al? You like that?" 

The baby gave a little sound, which was unintelligible but somewhere between a hiccup and a cry. Both Lieutenant Jones and the Doctor laughed for reasons Seven couldn't understand. It seemed that some humans and other species were quite smitten when it came to babies, for unknown reasons. 

Seven herself couldn't see what was appealing about them. They were loud, completely dependent and very unpredictable. No, she was happy to hand the responsibility to someone else. It was difficult enough to devise a schedule and regimen for the older children, it would be impossible to also care for the infant and still get any of her work done. 

Thinking of the other children reminded her of another reason she had wanted to come to sickbay. 

"I was wondering if you could give me advice on how to best carry out my responsibility for the remaining children we freed from the Borg. I am inexperienced in these matters. I thought because you are the godmothers of Naomi Wildman and she is very well adapted and studious, you might have some tips for me." 

She didn't mention that the reason she didn't ask Ensign Wildman herself was that she felt closer to both of them than to Naomi's mother and it was easier to ask them. 

Lieutenant Jones put the baby back in her crib. Doctor Mokeme thought for a moment and then answered. 

"It's easier than you'd think, really. Children are people. They're no different from any other living being, they want to explore, to learn, to be themselves. You were once freed from the collective yourself, I am sure their experiences aren't that different from yours, even though they haven't been assimilated for as long as you have." 

Jones chimed in after returning to Mokeme's side. 

"Freedom is the key. Freedom to find their personalities again, to evolve, to be themselves. Naomi always had freedom to do what she wanted to do and she always understood why she couldn't do the few things that she couldn't, actual dangerous things like running around the ship during a red alert or going swimming on the holodeck on her own." 

"Yes. The children are about as old as Naomi, if you want to bring them together some time for playing and for you to learn more about how to interact with them, that could be arranged easily." 

"Thank you. I would like that. I am not sure how to device a regimen for them based on freedom. I always thought that what children needed the most was discipline." 

Mokeme and Jones looked at each other. 

"Yes, unfortunately this notion is still far too common. But do you actually think that with discipline comes the opportunity for them to understand themselves and their individuality? That is what you want, isn't it, to give them what you were given, the possibility of finding themselves, of finding what they want to do and to be?" 

"Discipline cannot achieve that. The only thing it achieves is to model them in your image, after what you think they should be, not what they actually are. Yes, they might be illogical, irritating and emotional, but all of that is part of who they are. It is not up to us to destroy that, to force them to adapt to us. Instead, why don't we just let them be? Why not let them have the chaos they need to find who they are? As you see with Naomi, the benefits of this are far greater than the price." 

Seven nodded slightly. She had to think about all of this. Before, she always had seen the order the Borg instilled in her brain in the maturation chamber as a source of strength, something that helped her regain her humanity, helped her conquer the intense emotions she had felt during that first time on board Voyager. 

She had thought she wouldn't have been able to become an individual again without it. But what if that was wrong? What if this wasn't something the Borg gave her that was good but instead another thing that held her back? Was order really worth preserving? As much as she had always believed that without question, now she started to doubt it. 

Maybe for herself, right now, order was inevitable. But for those children in the cargo bay, maybe there was another way. A better way. A way for them to truly regain their individuality without having to rely on the Borg to bring order into chaos. 

"I would appreciate your input in planning lessons and activities for the children. I want them to be individuals, to be able to decide for themselves what they want to be. I know that me regaining my individuality can be a guidance for them. And while I am not sure how much I can truly help them on their journey, I do know that you helped me immensely and that I would be remiss if I didn't ask for your help." 

"Of course." 

"We'd love too. And after all, Aless is their sister so to speak and I am sure they will want to spend time with her too." 

They both smiled. Seven smiled back. 

"Thank you." 

Leaving sickbay, she felt better about the task ahead, knowing that she had help. 

 

In sickbay, Ajita looked at Chioma. 

"She came a long way, didn't she? I still remember when she first came on board." 

"Yes, me too. It's hard to imagine that the drone from back then is the same person as Seven is now." 

"You always believed she could be more. You know I sometimes had some doubt." 

"I know. I don't even know why I was so sure. Maybe it's my history." 

"Harriet Tubman, right? Well, that's part of my history too, I'm just more of the type that expects the worst and would actually pull the trigger."

"I know. And that is necessary too. I'm just really happy we didn't have to." 

Ajita smiled. 

"Me too." 

Both of them thought back to those days, when they tried their best to not only heal Seven physically but also emotionally and psychologically. At times, it had felt like an uphill battle, like they would be unable to do it. But for both of them, the one thing they would never have done was to leave her to the Borg to be reassimilated. As much as they hated doing it, they had to keep her from going back as long as they couldn't be sure Seven was actually making her own decisions out of her own free will. As long as they didn't know if she was truly able to consider all consequences for herself. 

***

"One. Why don't you let us go back? Why? One voice. One. Which color? Which color?" 

Seven was lying on the bed, too exhausted to lash out or to pace as she had done before. The only thing she could do was mumble to herself. Ajita looked at Chioma as they both went to the Doctor's office and looked out onto their patient. 

"You think she's getting better?" 

"I don't know." 

Chioma sighed. 

"The surgeries on the cortical node certainly worked. But to be honest, I don't know how to help her deal with all the emotions she feels right now, both about her old life and about her life as Borg." 

"I guess we need to give her time." 

"Yeah. I guess-" 

"Doctor!" 

The cry was different than the mumbling and the crying from before. They both immediately got up and hurried to Seven's side. Half raised on the bed, she was cradling her head in her hands.

"It hurts." 

Chioma started examining Seven's eye and then looked at Ajita worriedly.

"We need to start the extraction process on the eye sooner than we thought." 

Ajita nodded and started prepping the instruments. Seven looked at the Doctor, her facial expression full of intense pain and fear. 

"What does that mean? What are you doing to me?" 

"As you know, your physiology is rejecting the cybernetic parts. We thought we could wait with implanting the artificial eye we have prepared until most of your other implants are extracted or stabilized, but apparently your body decided otherwise. 

It is violently reacting to what it now perceives as a foreign element in your eye, while still relying on the implant around the eye for higher brain functions. We need to take the implant in your eye out without damaging any part of the other implant before your own body does more damage than the implant itself." 

"Will it stop hurting?" 

Seven's voice now sounded much less sure, much more like the girl that she had once been. Chioma's heart went out to her. 

"Yes it will. I promise." 

"Okay." 

Seven seemed to regain some of the posture she had displayed before, the outward appearance of being calm and collected. But it was very apparent that under the surface, the turmoil continued.

"You may proceed." 

"Thank you. We will need to anaesthetize you. 

Seven nodded and Ajita, who had already prepared a hypospray, bend over to her. 

"Don't worry, it won't hurt." 

She inserted the contents of the hypospray into Seven's neck. Immediately, Seven lost consciousness. 

Chioma looked at Ajita. 

"Let's do this." 

Ajita smiled and handed her the instruments. 

"We can do it. It's just an eye, you know, no biggie." 

Chioma laughed. 

"Yep, just your every day eye implant, complete with having to reconstruct the eyelid and eyelashes from nothing and while needing to leave the artificial implant right around the eye intact because without it her brain would stop functioning. Walk in the park." 

"Exactly. What could go wrong?" 

Cocking her head to the side, Chioma faked a frown. 

"Is that a trick question? Cause I can think of about three million things." 

"Nah, you're too good for all of those." 

"We are." 

"Of course." 

Now they both laughed, but then immediately became serious again and started the procedure. It went better than they had hoped and in the end they even had time to extract one of the main cranial implants that had so far been necessary for stabilizing the eye implant but would now be the next one to be rejected by Seven's body, so extracting it was imperative. 

While Seven recovered, the captain came to ask about her status and they could assure her that Seven made astounding strides, at least physically. They would see in time how the mental side of things would progress. 

For now, as Seven woke up later, she was visibly relieved that the pain was over. She had regained a lot of her calmness. If she felt any irritation about her new artificial eye, it was hard to tell. But she did request a mirror to look at herself now. 

Ajita brought her one, not sure if it was such a good idea. But Seven did not have any breakdowns at the sight of herself. She just looked at the mirror for quite a long time, remaining silent. 

Finally she spoke, to no one in particular. 

"I look… different." 

Chioma and Ajita came closer to the biobed. 

"You look more like your actual self now."

Chioma came even closer, standing right next to Seven. 

"Do you recognize her?" 

"No." 

Seven looked at Chioma and then back at the mirror. Slowly, she put one hand on her head, touching the remaining cranial implants and the skin.

"I… I had hair." 

She looked at Chioma again. 

"Not like you. Less." 

Chioma had to suppress a laugh and Ajita winked at her. Yeah, it was pretty unsurprising that little Annika had had less hair than her own, which while not very long was very frizzy and surrounded her head with enormous volume. She liked it this way, while Ajita preferred hair nearly as short as a buzz cut. 

Now Seven turned her attention to Ajita and frowned. 

"And more than you."

"Yeah, I'd say so." 

She smiled encouragingly. 

"Would you want to have hair again? We could stimulate the growth of the hair follicles after we have extracted all the implants in your skull." 

"Hair." 

Seven stroked her head for a few moments. Then she seemed to be distressed by her own thoughts and threw the mirror into the corner. 

"Hair is irrelevant!" 

Chioma remained calm, trying to calm Seven down who was now breathing heavily. 

"No, it is not." 

Ajita came closer to the biobed too, trying to calm Seven down but not appear imposing or threatening. 

"It is a sign of who you are. What you want to look like. Hair can say a lot about someone's personality. It is a measure of individuality." 

Slowly, Seven seemed to become calmer.

"I am an individual now. Small. Chaos. Hair." 

Chioma smiled a little. 

"You don't have to decide right now. It will be a few days until we have extracted all the implants, so you still have some time. Would you like to see some pictures of different hair you could have?" 

Seven frowned but nodded. Then she seemed to have a thought. 

"The child the Captain showed me. She had long hair. Short in the front. But I don't remember her." 

"You will." 

"I… I would like that." 

Chioma and Ajita shared a look and a smile.

Yes, it might be an uphill battle still, but they were on their way.


End file.
